MUST READ: Is adultery lawful in Tiv land?

Written By Idoma Television on Monday, September 5, 2016 | 6:58:00 AM

It has taken me more than a decade to
make up my mind on writing this article, knowing the passion it is
likely to generate, no thanks to the sensitive nature of the topic. At a
point, I even played with the idea of not doing any public write up on
the subject matter.

However, the sheer ferocity and consistency of the
misinformation being peddled around and the risk of not standing up
against this deliberate falsehood against my clan (and vicariously,
perhaps, against me) while I am yet alive and the greater risk of going
to join my Creator at His appointed time without countering this public
lie have all made me damn the consequences and send this article for
publication.It all started in 1987 in a criminal complaint of adultery, in the
case of Tofi vs. Uba (1987) 3 NWLR (Pt. 62) 707 C.A. In this case, the
appellant had filed a private criminal prosecution for adultery against
the 1st respondent in the Magistrate’s Court, contrary to section 387 of
the Penal Code. It must be noted that under this penal provision, a man
can only be guilty of adultery if he is “subject to any native law or
custom in which extra-marital sexual intercourse is recognised as a
criminal offence.” This provision was one of the compromise provisions
of the Penal Code at the time of its enactment, which balanced Sharia
law with native law and custom, as both religions or customs held sway
in the then Northern Nigeria.

When the charge against the 1st respondent came up, his counsel
raised objection that the charge did not disclose any offence known to
law, contrary to section 33(12) of the 1979 Constitution – the
equivalent of section 36(12) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended. At
that relevant time, the Local Government (Declaration of Tiv Customary
Marriage) Order, 1985 was in force; and section 25(1)(f) thereof
provided that “any person who detained a wife duly married under this
Declaration for any reason or purposes whatsoever against the wish of
the husband” was guilty of an offence.

In view of this, the learned trial Magistrate dismissed the objection
and called upon the 1st respondent to take his plea. Rather than do so,
he applied to the High Court for judicial review, pursuant to section
33(12) of the 1979 Constitution. The High Court granted his reliefs and
quashed the charge. The appellant’s appeal to the Court of Appeal was
dismissed on rather technical grounds.

That Court held that since the
Local Government (Declaration of Tiv Customary Marriage) Order, 1985,
did not prohibit adultery in express terms but merely criminalised
wrongful detention of a married woman against her husband’s wish,
section 33(12) of the 1979 Constitution was rightly invoked by the 1st
respondent; because this meant adultery per se was not a crime in Tiv
land. The Court of Appeal also rejected the need for oral evidence to be
called.

It was this judgment that laid the unfortunate foundation for the
scandalous, ever-blossoming and tendentious falsehood that adultery in
lawful in Tiv land. This barefaced lie is even widened to include a very
silly assertion that ‘when you visit a Tiv man, he will offer you his
wife’! What a monstrous and pith-of-hell assertion! Not even domestic or
wild animals tolerate strangers or lesser males going near their female
partners (and not even wives); talk more of the naturally well and
strongly-built (chemistry-wise) and ultra-proud Tiv man!

Before I proceed further, I wish to submit that in the whole of
Southern Nigeria, adultery remains a moral offence as opposed to a
criminal offence. So, are we on this basis alone going to say adultery
is not a criminal offence or is lawful in Southern Nigeria? I think not,
with due respect.

In my mental agony of trying to repel this rapaciously-growing
corporate lie against my clan (and vicariously against me), I dug deep
into some fork lore and traditional songs. Two songs readily came to my
mind.The first is this: “Aberanyi, ikurche, or van nya kpa ka gbidi nan;
Ikurche, Terem O, or van nya ta abeda icul.” This, translated, means:
“Aberanyi, let me give you information (ikurche”), even a visitor can be
beaten; more information (“ikurche”) my dear father, your visitor tied
your wife’s wrapper.” This is a clear indication that while Aberanyi the
father was not around, the visitor misbehaved with the wife and there
was need to teach the visitor the lesson of his life!

The second song goes thus: “Baba o-o, Baba u yem ke zende yo, or nyor
sha yough i Aya la, or yav sha gambe u Aya; Aya ka a daa or; or a daa
Aya, cho i gba ga Aya yav gadeaa, kwaghbo.” Everybody knows the meaning
of “Baba.” The interpretation, therefore is thus: Father, while you
travelled, a stranger entered into your elder wife’s (Aya’s) hut, sat on
her bed and the two of them started pushing each other until after a
while, Aya, the old women lay weak; it is an abomination (kwaghbo). Of
course, the consequence of such kwaghbo or abomination could only be
imagined!

My findings and views above were recently confirmed by no other
person than the Tor Tiv, HRM Dr. Alfred Akawe Torkula, the paramount
traditional ruler of the Tiv worldwide, in his book, The Tiv Woman:
Challenges and Prospects, published by the Aboki Publishers in 2009, the
foreword of which was written by no less a personality than HE Rt. Hon.
Gabriel Suswam, the Executive Governor of Benue State, himself a Tiv.
Writing in his capacity as the chief custodian of Tiv cultural values,
HRM submitted on pages 21-22, under the banner FIDELITY, as follows:

“The challenges of the pre-colonial Tiv woman were enormous. She had
to be faithful to her husband at all times. Like the Idoma of Central
Nigeria who dragged their wives before alekwu for adulterous confession,
as reported by Shishima (2008), the pre-colonial Tiv woman faced the
same situation … married women were subjected to periodic
concoction-drinking rituals to determine their fidelity in marriage …

It
was an exercise in morality which brought honour, respect and good
reputation to the husband on one hand and the parents of the woman on
the other. Any adulterous woman who dared to drink the concoction risked
instant death if relevant deities were not appeased or propitiated.”And concluding on the effect of Christianity on the moral life of the
Tiv woman, HRM summed up on page 41 of the book as follows:

“No less obedient to her husband, educated, feminine in structure,
comely in looks, stately in gait, and faithful among other equals, more
than any woman in Nigeria, the Tiv woman today yearns and aspires for
the best that is available for the womenfolk…. Through evangelisation,
her belief in tsav and akombo (wizardry) has been replaced by the
Christian Biblical teaching of the Almighty God … The Christian God has
become central in the belief system of the Tiv people as a whole.”What a truism! If over 95 per cent (by my estimation) of Tiv people are Christians, where then is the place for adultery?

My research has further shown me that a man reacts angrily, call it
fatally, to infidelity of his wife or partner. The Tiv man is not an
exception. Two recently reported cases will support this. In Sugh vs.
State (1988) 2 NWLR (Pt. 77) 475 S.C., the appellant, a Tiv man,
murdered in broad daylight a foreigner for flirting with his Philippine
girlfriend in Makurdi, Benue State. He was sentenced to death, which
sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court. More recently, the Court
of Appeal confirmed the death sentence of another Tiv man in far away
Osun State, who had murdered a native of that State for flirting with
his wife.

This was in the case of Ahungur vs. State (2012) 12 NWLR (Pt.
1313) 187 C.A. Admittedly, every society has deviants, sinners and
immoral persons. Tiv land cannot be an exception till our Lord returns
in His Glory to take His saints to heaven. But I oppose the lie growing
like wildfire that adultery is lawful or even tolerated in Tiv land.
This is an intolerable lie. It must die a natural death. Now! God bless
the Tiv nation.

•Hon is an Abuja-based lawyer

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